Low stakes assessments after lectures, provide students an opportunity to use the tools developed in lecture. We all use homework to some degree but the design of homework should help students cultivate the skills you believe to be useful. Is this considered active learning, absolutely. Students appropriate techniques from class to design solution methods for similar problems outside of class.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Creating repetitive process for students to practice the theories we express allows students to begin a path to mastery. One common concern is that students will only know how to solve the problems instructors give them. To combat this problem, it is important to combine active learning activities in class in order to guide students after lectures. Active learning guidance will carry over from class to homework, as you help to highlight important points and navigating pitfalls.

Moreover, allowing students time to practice the cognitive skills we wish them to acquire creates an automation process for some of the simpler tasks freeing up brain power to complete more complex tasks.

Creating homework assignments should begin by understanding the cognitive skills you wish students to acquire. After the skills are introduced and practiced in class, the homework problems should build directly from the active learning exercises accomplished in class.

Additionally, reviewing selected problems in class can support the active learning effort. Once homework is due, asking students to demonstrate the problems

To combat problem set fatigue, I ask students to write a homework problem on their own unlike something I have distributed.

To begin your own classroom example

• Reflect on the cognitive concepts you wish students possessed
• Develop problems which reflect these concepts you want to students to know
• Create problems which can serve as templates for an exam
• To combat rote learning, ask students to write a homework problem of their own similar to but unlike something they have solved

Starting with a Lecture problem, I emphasize the cognitive skills I am requiring of students. In this active learning task, students are encouraged to work in pairs or small groups to work through the problem. After I ask for volunteers to describe the solution method to class, while I annotate the solution.

To promote repetition, I will often ask students to follow up our lecture problem with another active learning exercise. Below are two exercise we use to emphasize the quantitative and qualitative outcomes

After lecture, students are asked to them complete a problem similar to our in class exercises. Later they will be quizzed and then tested over the same material

So before an exam, students have completed some variation of the problem around 3-5 times. During class they have worked in groups to create a solution method, and have listened to me describe the intricacies of the problem. After class, using our lectures as a road map, students a complete the homework. Once the homework is due, I will complete problems which I know are pain points for most students. This is to prepare students for a quiz, which is taken under test like situations. The quiz, in turn, is analyzed with feedback to give students time to polish their methods before an exam.